custombioniclefandomcom-20200214-history
Toa Mangai
The Toa Mangai were a team of Toa charged with defending Metru Nui during the Toa/Dark Hunter War. History Formation Assembled roughly 4,500 years ago, the Toa Mangai originated from a group of traveling Toa converging upon Metru Nui. Led by Toa Lhikan, a survivor of the Toa Fortress, the amalgamated team consisted of eleven members, including Nidhiki, Tuyet, Naho, a Toa of Earth, a Toa of Stone, a Toa of Plant Life, and four Toa of Ice. Charging themselves with defending Metru Nui in the absence of an existing Toa Team, these Toa joined forces for the first time to subdue the Kanohi Dragon, a powerful Rahi that had been unleashed on Metru Nui by a band of Dark Hunters. After a lengthy battle, the Toa emerged victorious and restrained the Rahi. Electing to stay in Metru Nui and defend the local Matoran, these eleven Toa were awarded the title and rank of Toa Mangai by Turaga Dume. The island's Chronicler, a Po-Matoran named Kodan, was also notably assigned to document the exploits of the newly-established Toa Team during this time, allowing him to keep record of their achievements and liaise between the Toa and Turaga Dume. Betrayal of Tuyet In the years following the defeat of the Kanohi Dragon, however, Tuyet became increasingly paranoid, eventually hearing word that a group of Dark Hunters had ransacked her former village in search of the Nui Stone, a powerful artifact that she had brought with her to Metru Nui. Convinced that the Dark Hunters would eventually make their way to Metru Nui and reclaim the Nui Stone from her, Tuyet set about a complex scheme to ensure her safety. Around 3,500 years ago, in a period of Metru Nui's history where most of the Toa Mangai were taking part in missions outside the island's dome, Tuyet was charged with defending the island alone with Lhikan and Nidhiki. After discovering that a small squadron of Dark Hunters had made landfall in Metru Nui, Tuyet began to enact her plan, brutally murdering three random Matoran and framing their deaths on the Dark Hunters operating in the city. With Lhikan and Nidhiki endeavoring to investigate the incidents and engage the Dark Hunters, however, Tuyet's teammates eventually grew skeptical. With Lhikan growing wise to Tuyet's deception, however, the Toa of Water was forced to reveal her possession of the Nui Stone, proposing that they use it to assert themselves as the dominant species of the Matoran Universe and forcibly suppress the Dark Hunters. Deeply troubled by Tuyet's proposal, however, Lhikan challenged the Toa of Water in combat. Activating the Nui Stone and using her enhanced Elemental Powers to fend off Lhikan, Tuyet earned the upper hand in the brief battle that ensued. Unable to kill the leader of the Toa Mangai while empowered by the Nui Stone, however, the intervention of Nidhiki ensured Tuyet's downfall, notably resulting in the Nui Stone being shattered into shards and embedded in the Toa of Water's armor. Detained and imprisoned within the Coliseum, Tuyet would reside within a cell for several hours whilst Lhikan debated with Turaga Dume over her ultimate fate. During this time, however, the Order of Mata Nui grew privy to Tuyet's destructive potential and saw fit to study the Nui Stone fragments, dispatching Botar to abduct her overnight. Toa/Dark Hunter War With attitudes towards Toa taking an unsavory flavor across the Matoran Universe, the Dark Hunter organization notably began to grow in size, becoming a recognized power faction and a constant menace to Toa on a universal scale, establishing footholds in regions across the universe. Now confident in his claim to power, The Shadowed One became prideful, and sought a base of operations in Metru Nui. This period would thus witness numerous attempts from the Dark Hunters to win Metru Nui, both through political assassination of Turaga Dume and through clashes with the Toa Mangai. After nearly three centuries of brewing tensions, the Toa/Dark Hunter War finally erupted, prompting a full-scale Dark Hunter invasion of Metru Nui. With the Toa Mangai captured and the Dark Hunters poised to take over Metru Nui, however, Toa Naho was able to break free of captivity and slip into the Silver Sea. Escaping the Metru Nui dome, Naho was able to reach the island that had originally been inhabited by Toa Lesovikk, which had since been repopulated, entreating the local Turaga for aid repelling the Dark Hunters. With the Turaga proving hesitant to involve himself in the affairs of Metru Nui, Naho was ultimately able to persuade him to directly confront the island's grim past, ensuring that one hundred Toa would be send to join the war effort and repel the Dark Hunters from Metru Nui's shores. Returning through the Sea Gates, Toa Naho led the legion of Toa in an open attack against the invading Dark Hunters, orchestrating the release of the Toa Mangai and shifting the conflict in favor of the Toa. Under Lhikan's leadership, the Toa Mangai devised offensive strategies to repel the various Dark Hunter attacks, notably driving "Tyrant" into the Silver Sea and defeating "Vengeance". However, swayed by the temptations of a Dark Hunter known as Lariska, Toa Nidhiki come to betray his fellow Toa, orchestrating a Dark Hunter ambush around Lhikan's command squadron in the Canyon of Unending Whispers. However, having tailed Nidhiki the previous night, Lhikan had grown privy to the deception and made preparations for Toa reserves to make landfall in Metru Nui that morning, flanking the Dark Hunters and ambushing them once Nidhiki revealed his true intentions. With Lariska vocalizing the Dark Hunter surrender, the Toa Mangai allowed the Dark Hunters to leave unharmed in return for the Makoki Stone, along with the added conditions that the Dark Hunters never return, and that they would take the traitor Nidhiki away with them. Met with open criticism on Xia, the activities of the Toa Mangai during the war served only to further distance the interests of the Toa from those of the denizens of the wider Matoran Universe, who were inconvenienced by the conflict and saw the confrontation as entirely unnecessary. Furthermore, the organization of the Toa into a military unit aroused considerable doubts in their collective moral conviction. However, public attitudes towards the Toa were settled once more following a statement issued by Turaga Dume, who exposed the Dark Hunters' aggressive policy of conquest and sabotage for the purposes of seizing the crowning island of the Matoran Universe. In the aftermath of the conflict, Toa Naho announced her retirement plans to Turaga Dume. After the harrowing experiences of the Toa/Dark Hunter War and the betrayal of Tuyet, she passed on a number of Toa Stones and petitioned for him to distribute them to worthy Matoran, considering him to be a better judge of character. Great Cataclysm Over the course of the following century, the Brotherhood of Makuta's unsavory agenda became clearer to the broader citizenry of the Matoran Universe. With the total Toa population beginning to see drastic decreases in size and with Mata Nui now distinctly absent, Makuta Teridax enacted the first phase of his Grand Plan, capturing Turaga Dume, placing him in a Matoran Pod, and assuming his form. Having bequeathed her Toa Stones to Turaga Dume 1000 years ago, Toa Naho would appeal to Makuta Teridax, asking him what had become of her Toa Stones. Possessing no knowledge on the subject, Naho's suspicions were instantly aroused. Fearful that the Toa Mangai would be his unraveling much in the same way as the escape of his Toa Hagah team had proved an eternal thorn in his side, Teridax thus chose to accelerate his agenda. With Nidhiki now mutated into a larger, arachnid form and begrudgingly serving as a member of the Dark Hunters, Teridax commissioned The Shadowed One for Dark Hunter assistance in an operation on Metru Nui. Dispatched alongside Krekka and "Eliminator", Nidhiki ensured that the Toa Mangai remained separated and gathered intelligence on the Great Kanoka Disks whilst "Eliminator" hunted down and murdered the Po-Matoran Chronicler and eight of the remaining Toa Mangai individually, using his Lightning capabilities to ensure they could not be revived in the Red Star. With the Toa Mangai disappearing in rapid succession, Toa Lhikan grew wise to the Dark Hunter plot and learnt that Nidhiki had once again returned to Metru Nui. Mistrustful of Turaga Dume, the Toa of Fire looked to the stars and saw the names of six Matoran written among them. Reviving the ancient practice of creating Toa Stones, Lhikan imbued his Toa Power within the stones then transported them to the six Matoran: Vakama, Nokama, Whenua, Onewa, Matau and Nuju, in the hopes that they could succeed where he and his fellow Toa Mangai had failed. Distributing the Toa Stones, however, Lhikan was ultimately captured by Nidhiki and Krekka in Ta-Metru, before relinquishing his Toa Power and transforming into a Turaga. Continuing on to reunite a new generation of Toa and christening them the Toa Metru, Lhikan offered Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju insight into the use of their Elemental Powers, teaching them to activate their mask powers and enabling them to escape the Prison of the Dark Hunters. Legacy With all eleven members widely believed to have been killed before the Great Cataclysm, the Toa Metru would carry on the legacy of the Toa Mangai, transporting the Matoran of Metru Nui to the tropical island of Mata Nui, where they sacrificed their Toa Power to revive the Matoran, fulfilling Lhikan's dying wish. Lhikan's Noble Hau was bequeathed unto Vakama in the moments before his death. Upon reviving the Matoran and finding that a Ta-Matoran named Jaller had damaged his Kanohi in transit to Mata Nui, Vakama placed Lhikan's mask on the Matoran's face, knowing that Lhikan would rather it be used to support life than gather dust. Across the island of Mata Nui, key geological features were named in honor of various members of the Toa Mangai, with a coastal feature in Ga-Koro earning the name Naho Falls, the largest network of mine shifts in the Onu-Koro Mines being named the Marn Tunnels, the sparsest region of Po-Wahi being referred to as the Motara Desert, and a large bay in southern Le-Wahi being named Kanae Bay. Turaga Vakama would later go on to tell the Matoran legends of a Ta-Matoran lavasurfer named Lhii, a fictional character whose exploits were entirely derived from the heroics of Toa Lhikan. Following the Restoration of Spherus Magna, Turaga Dume would reveal Naho's Toa Stones, which he had carried on his person since his confinement within a Matoran Pod in the months prior to the Great Cataclysm. With the Toa population at its lowest since before the Great Cataclysm, Dume would award the stones to a new generation of Toa, who he had hand-picked over the previous century. Members Canon Fanon Appearances *Battle for Leadership Category:Toa Category:Toa Teams Category:Toa Mangai